Still waiting for Signa statement on Benko’s future
Published: Monday, Nov 6th 2023, 15:30
Updated At: Tuesday, Nov 7th 2023, 00:54
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The tug-of-war over the future of the struggling Signa Group around company founder René Benko continues. The withdrawal of Benko announced by a Signa Holding co-partner last Friday is still open.
No one could explain on what basis this Signa co-shareholder had come to this assessment, an insider told the "Handelsblatt" (Monday edition). There was no agreement, nothing was in writing.
Last week, some Signa co-shareholders sent a personal letter demanding Benko's withdrawal as Signa CEO, the transfer of his voting rights in trust and the appointment of German restructuring expert Arndt Geiwitz as general representative.
"Rene Benko has responded positively to this request and his willingness is evident," said Signa Holding co-shareholder Hans-Peter Haselsteiner last Friday. "It is clear that he is willing to sign this. He just wants to know from his side whether the shareholders would also be prepared to make a contribution to the restructuring of the group with such a far-reaching solution," Haselsteiner said at the time.
Benko has had no operational function in the Signa Group he created since 2013, but holds the majority of voting rights through his family foundations and is considered the Signa leader. Signa Holding GmbH has a high-caliber advisory board, with Benko acting as chairman. Among others, former Austrian Social Democratic Party Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer and Lindt & Sprüngli Chairman of the Board Ernst Tanner sit on the advisory board.
Bond worries
The liquidity bottleneck at the development project subsidiary Signa Development and the collapse in the price of the Signa Development Finance bond with a volume of 300 million euros, which has been reported in the media, is causing a stir among investors. According to the Handelsblatt, many mutual funds specializing in high-yield bonds have invested in the aforementioned bond, including the German DWS and the asset managers Schroders and Invesco.
According to the newspaper, investors now suspect that money that was supposed to be available to repay the bond has been used to repay shareholder loans. According to Handelsblatt, Signa Development has scheduled an investor call for next Thursday, at which the outflow of funds will be explained in more detail.
Signa could not be reached for comment by the newspaper on these allegations on Sunday. Signa has also not responded to inquiries from the Austrian news agency APA for some time.
The Swiss department store chain Globus would also be affected by a possible collapse of the Benko empire. Half of it is owned by Signa. Possible scenarios for the future of Globus have therefore already been played out in the media.
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